Wednesday, April 01, 2015

HILARIOUS RICK SANTORUM SAYS ISIS PROPAGANDA IS BETTER JOURNALISM THAN THE NEW YORK TIMES

Rick Santorum is one of three public figures who've been identified as enemies in a new issue of an ISIS propaganda magazine:

A magazine published by the Islamic State has put Virginia state Sen. Richard H. Black on very short enemies list.

The publication, Dabiq, singles out Black (R-Loudoun) along with two others it describes as “crusaders,” former U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and CIA veteran and author Gary Berntsen.

STEVE DOOCY: You know, it's one thing if The New York Times quotes you, or we quote you on Fox, but when ISIS quotes you, what did you think?

RICK SANTORUM: Well, the difference is ISIS actually quoted me accurately, composed -- compared to The New York Times, which is sort of a remarkable comment on the state of the media today.

Oooh, snap! Ya burnt, New York Slimes!

Seriously, Santorum? When have you been quoted inaccurately in The New York Times? I'm not asking about expressions of opinion in the Times that you don't like, or interpretations of facts you disagree with in straight Times journalism -- when exactly has the Times misquoted you? I want article titles and dates. It's not "a remarkable comment on the state of the media" if it's not based on facts, so give me facts.

Yes, maybe I'm making too much of an offhand quip (although I don't think it was an offhand quip -- the stumble over the word "compared" suggests to me that this exchanged was scripted for Doocy and Santorum and read off prompters, as, I suspect, many of the liberal-baiting jokes in Fox interviews are scripted). But this is how the right thinks. ISIS is bad, but ISIS isn't the main enemy. The main enemy is the right's domestic political opposition (and, in this case, Rupert Murdoch's media competitors, who are all, of course, part of the vast left-wing conspiracy). You'll see this in the rest of the clip. Santorum's ultimate enemy is in the Oval Office:

SANTORUM: ... They did. They accurately quoted -- I described who they were, what they were about, what they wanted to accomplish, and they put it out there because it accurately described who they are, which is, again, a comment on this administration and their unwillingness to deal directly with the truth about who ISIS is, they're a global jihadist movement, they have established a caliphate, they want to expand that caliphate, and I explained what that was about. So I took it as them actually finding an American politician who actually described them as to who they really are.

Did you follow thaT? Santorum is such a truth-teller, and Obama such a prevaricator, that even ISIS admires Santorum for his truth-telling.

Santorum is proud of being quoted by ISIS. He's come to the conclusion that ISIS has somehow pulled the wool over Obama's eyes, which helps ISIS, while his own noble truth-telling exposes ISIS -- yet the members of ISIS actually admire him for exposing them!

In reality, ISIS wants to quote Santorum because his words function as an extremely effective recruiting tool. The Santorum quote in Dabiq comes from a February appearance by Santorum on (of course) Fox News, in which he aggrandizes ISIS almost as effectively as its own propaganda does ("They’re not losing ground. They’re not being discredited in the eyes of the Muslim world. They will get stronger") and suggests that nothing will stop the group short of deploying a large U.S. ground force:

In the caliphate, the reason that we had a thousand-year world with the Muslim world....When I say “we” I mean the West...had a thousand-year war with Islam is that Islam was ever-expanding. When Islam began to contract, it collapsed. The caliphate was eliminated. Now they have established a caliphate. They are dead serious about expanding it. Unless we begin to take back that ground and make this caliphate irrelevant in the eyes of the Muslim world, or the radical Muslim world, we are going to have a bigger and bigger problem. So, the key is to act promptly and to make sure that America is involved. We have to have...I said today in my speech here at CPAC that we could put forth 10,000 troops....

Many right-wingers have quoted Graeme Wood's Atlantic article "What ISIS Really Wants," but Wood thinks it would be a terrible idea for America to rise to ISIS's bait this way, because it's exactly what ISIS wants:

The biggest proponent of an American invasion is the Islamic State itself. The provocative videos, in which a black-hooded executioner addresses President Obama by name, are clearly made to draw America into the fight. An invasion would be a huge propaganda victory for jihadists worldwide: irrespective of whether they have given baya’a [allegiance] to the caliph, they all believe that the United States wants to embark on a modern-day Crusade and kill Muslims. Yet another invasion and occupation would confirm that suspicion, and bolster recruitment.

So Santorum is doing what ISIS wants, and is quite pleased with himself for doing it. Oh, and by the way, Obama and The New York Times still suck!

This could be the boost Santorum needs in his campaign for the White House. Other candidates must be furious they're not on the ISIS list. I bet their press agents are trying to get in touch with ISIS right now, finding out what they have to do to rate being listed.